The Sri Lankan economy has seen robust annual growth at 6.4 percent over the course of 2003 to 2012. Almost five years after the end of the three-decade civil conflict, Sri Lanka is now focusing on long-term strategic and structural development challenges as it strives to transition to an upper middle income country.
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Improvement of the performance of the
judiciary is an important part of a growth agenda for Sri
Lanka as it moves to middle income country status. The
present gover... Show More +nment has set ambitious targets to double gross
domestic product (GDP) per capita by 2016 and has cited the
need for a more efficient judicial sector as a means of
reducing poverty. This is consistent with the broad
historical evidence that a well-functioning judicial sector
is the most effective long-term instrument for securing
property rights and enforcing contracts, which in turn are
critical factors for investment and commerce, and hence
poverty reduction and economic growth. Sri Lanka ranks 133rd
in the 2013 doing business's sub-index on enforcement
of contracts, a level that is comparable to other South
Asian countries but lower than other middle income
comparators such as Thailand (ranked 23rd) and Malaysia
(ranked 33rd). Identifying the contributing factors to
inefficiency in Sri Lanka's courts in hearing
commercial cases is the main purpose of this review. The
findings in the report are based on available statistics on
court performance and interviews with key stakeholders in
the justice sector. The report is structured as follows:
chapter one gives introduction, chapter two gives
organization and management of the courts, chapter three
gives data on case handling in courts, chapter four deals
with private sector approaches to dispute resolution,
chapter five focuses on legal and procedural issues in
commercial cases, chapter six gives past reform efforts, and
chapter seven gives conclusions and recommendations. Show Less -